Graduate Council Meeting

MINUTES

November 21, 2008

3:00 P.M.

Room 402, McClelland Park Building

 

Invited Guests: George Gehrels, Chair, Undergraduate Council

Thomas Rhodes, Research Specialist, Principal, Graduate College

Dr. Robin Harris, (substitute for Member Chen, who was unable to attend)

 

Members Present: Andrew Carnie, Nathan Cherrington, Andrew Comrie, Emily Connally, Matthew Cordes, Dennis Doxtater, Steven Dvorak, Robin Harris, Dianne Horgan, A. Quadir Khan, Suzanne Knosp, Tsianina Lomawaima, Betul Ozkan, Andrei Sanov, Tim Secomb, Don Slack, Gail Varin, Kevin Vinson, Rose Ylimaki

 

Members Excused: Zhao Chen, David Chisholm, Stephanie Fryberg, LouAnn Gerken, Perry Gilmore, Gautam Gowrisankaren, Kathie Insel, Lisa Ordonez, Maria Teresa Velez

 

Call to Order and Roll Call. The meeting was called to order by Chair Comrie at 3:07 p.m. A sign-in sheet was passed in lieu of roll call and new members Andrew Carnie of Social and Behavior Sciences and Rose Ylimaki of the College of Education were introduced by Chair Comrie.

 

An amendment was made to the minutes of September 19, 2008 to change the sentence reading, “College and departments offering undergraduate degrees will submit White Papers, ….” to “College and departments offering degrees will submit White Papers,….”. The minutes were approved as amended.

 

Dean’s Report. Chair Comrie gave an update on transformation activities. Some of these ideas/plans involve mergers and streamlining of existing processes. Because the Graduate College reports to the Office of the Vice President for Research, Graduate Studies, and Economic Development, its transformation ideas will be submitted through the Office of the Vice President for Research, Graduate Studies, and Economic Development. Campus-wide transformation ideas/plans submitted by the Administration will be posted on the web by the end of the semester. A review of the Graduate Program will most likely take place in 2009.

 

GPSC Report. Member Khan reported that the graduate community is still quite concerned about the impact transformation activities will have on graduate courses and programs. In response to Member Khan’s request for clarification on the status of the third GPSC seat on the Council that the Council approved last Spring, Chair Comrie stated that the vote for this change was brought before the Council in anticipation of the change being approved by the Faculty Senate. However, this change in the Faculty Senate Bylaws was not among those submitted to the Faculty Senate for vote this Fall. Graduate Council Bylaws cannot be changed until Faculty Senate Bylaws pertaining to this issue are approved by the Faculty Senate. In the meantime, however, Chair Comrie encouraged the individual selected to fill the third seat to attend Graduate Council meetings and to provide input on items that come before the Council, even though she is not yet eligible to vote.

 

New Business.

Grade Replacement Opportunity Policy and Course Repeat Policy Revisions. Guest Gehrels attended the meeting to provide information on revisions to these policies that were approved by the Undergraduate Council last year. Under the new policy, GROs are available only to freshmen and sophomores. Juniors and seniors do have a mechanism in place to appeal their grade and/or retroactively withdraw from the class.

 

The Graduate Council discussed whether to accept the Undergraduate GRO as it would apply to graduate students. Member Horgan stated that GROs in graduate programs are generally requested by students on probation and non-degree students and that the manual tracking required takes extensive administrative time. Under the existing GRO policy for the Graduate College, a “bad” grade in a class can be “wiped” off the transcript by GRO’ing a class. The transcript, therefore, does not truly reflect the student’s performance in the program. If the GRO Policy is totally eliminated for graduate students, they would still have the options to either drop the class or repeat the class (with both grades reflected on the transcript). If a student chose to repeat the class, the average of the two grades would be used in the calculation of the GRA.

Member Secomb motioned that Grade Replacement Opportunity Policy be eliminated for graduate students, effective with graduate students entering under the next catalog. The motion was seconded by Member Knosp and passed with 10 in favor of the motion to eliminate the GRO for graduate students, 9 in favor of retaining the GRO Policy as it currently exists, and no abstentions.

 

Oral Comprehensive Exams. A proposed simplification process for Oral Comprehensive Exams was discussed. The main change in the process is that the Graduate College no longer be responsible for scheduling the Exams, but rather the scheduling should be done by the individuals departments. The Council agreed with this proposal and a new form reflecting this change will most likely available in January, 2009.

 

Medical Withdrawal Policy Proposal. The Undergraduate Council approved a proposal to revise the Medical Withdrawal Policy and Procedure in November 2008. Concern was expressed about students working at Campus Health having access to other students’ health records. Chair Comrie indicated that compliance with HIPAA regulations is the responsibility of Campus Health Services, but he would bring the concern to Harry McDermott, Director of Campus Health Services. Member Secomb motioned that the Graduate Council approved the Policy as it relates to Graduate Students and Member Dvorak seconded the motion. The motion passed with16 in favor of the motion, 0 opposed, and 2 abstentions.

 

Code of Academic Integrity. This document was distributed to the Graduate Council Members for their information.

 

CGS Graduate Enrollment and Degree Report. Master’s Completion/Time to Degree Table. Guest Thomas Rhodes and Member Dianne Horgan distributed these documents to the Graduate Council. Member Horgan stated that these documents could be used by departments to compare their graduate program with other institutions with the same discipline.

 

Old Business. There was no old business.

 

Announcements. The next regularly scheduled meeting is Friday, January 16, 2009 at this location.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 5:10 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Linda Nultemeier

Graduate Council Secretary